


Colliding Worlds

by DragonSaphiraReads



Series: Fluffuary 2020 [15]
Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: description of drowning for like two sentences, siren au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-16
Updated: 2020-02-16
Packaged: 2021-02-28 06:55:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,935
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22689589
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DragonSaphiraReads/pseuds/DragonSaphiraReads
Summary: Remus had never liked staying still. He was restless, and sailing on the ocean was a decent reprieve, but sometimes it just became too much.
Relationships: Anxiety | Virgil Sanders/Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders
Series: Fluffuary 2020 [15]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1619986
Comments: 4
Kudos: 102





	Colliding Worlds

**Author's Note:**

> Like listening to podfics? You can listen to this oneshot on my YT channel here https://youtu.be/lGJYWpZf_2c

Remus stood on the bow of the ship, feeling the ocean breeze tug at his hair, salt stinging his skin. He hung from a rope with one hand, trying to get as close to the water as he could without falling in. 

So close, he could almost hear the waves crashing against the side of the hull. Since he was born, Remus had been hard of hearing. Everything was garbled and muted, like his ears were constantly full of water. But being on the ocean, there was a clarity he could never get while on land. 

He’d grown up in a landlocked little village with his mother and twin brother. The biggest mass of water he’d seen as a child were the puddles on the dirt road after a heavy rain. So when they traveled to a port town when Remus was fourteen, the sheer size of the ocean had simultaneously excited and terrified him. 

And that night they were scheduled to go back home, Remus left a note on his pillow and ran off to join the crew of whatever ship would take him. 

He had been a stowaway at first, hiding in the cargo hold and simply letting the rocking of the boat lull his heartbeat into a steady rhythm. Sometimes he was caught and put to work, often with a beating as well, but Remus didn’t care. As long as he was on the sea, he would do what he needed to do. 

Remus sighed, pulling himself up with the rope to climb the mast. He was eighteen now, though time passed differently on the water. For the last two years, he’d been sailing on The Dragon Witch, a trading ship captained by a man who called himself Deceit. He was a stern captain, but he appreciated Remus’s love for the sea and his willingness to do the jobs other sailors might not. 

He had a little time before his shift started, so he unofficially appointed himself as a lookout until he needed to leave. He took a seat on a beam high above the deck, watching the water sparkle below him. 

Then he heard a sound carrying over the water, clearer than anything else ever was. There was only one thing that he could hear that easily, and he immediately grabbed the rope to swing down onto the main deck, shouting at the top of his lungs. 

“SIREN!”

The call stopped everyone in their tracks for a moment before the call was repeated, echoed by dozens of voices as those on deck scrambled for wax to fill their ears and evade the enchantment of the siren’s song. 

Remus ran along, into the cabins to warn everyone on the ship to plug their ears. Then he burst into the captain’s quarters, startling Deceit who had been pondering over a book of accounts. 

“Siren, captain! Straight ahead!” Remus reported, and Deceit swore loudly, slamming his desk. 

“Damn it! We’re coming up on difficult terrain, I need everyone at full capacity!”

Remus shrugged. “I’m just the messenger!”

Deceit sighed. “I know. Alright, come with me, I’ll need you at the ready.” He scooped a small amount of wax from a pot in his desk drawer, hanging a glob of it to Remus as he passed him. 

The teenager followed him, splitting the wax into two pieces and rolling them between his fingers, fiddling with it for as long as he could. He hated the wax, it deafened the one sound that was so clear to him and it felt gross as well. 

Not to mention, siren song didn’t actually affect him. He didn’t know why, but he knew from one of the first times he stowed away on a ship. A siren had been sighted in their path, but there was of course no wax to be found deep in the cargo hold. He’d been captivated, yes, but in the way one might admire a particularly good performer. Never once had a siren song put him under a spell, like the stories told. 

If he didn’t put the wax in, the other sailors would shout at him. But he needed to be able to hear Deceit’s orders, so he might have _accidently_ dropped the pieces of wax as he ran after the captain up to the main deck. 

If Deceit noticed, he didn’t say anything. The captain moved swiftly to the railing, looking out at their path with a narrowed gaze. Remus followed closely behind, letting the siren song crash into him like the waves. There was something different about it, compared to what he remembered from years ago. The song had a different... intent behind it, that was the only way he could explain it. 

“Captain, I don’t think the siren is trying to crash us--”

“Well it’s going to if it doesn’t stop!” Deceit shouted back, waving him off. Remus sneered at the back of his head, huffing angrily. 

“It’s not trying to lure us in!”

Deceit spun on his heel, getting in Remus’s face. “And how do you know? Do you speak siren now?!”

“I...!” Remus bit his tongue, shutting his mouth tightly. Even though he knew the captain usually liked him, he shouldn’t push his luck. Especially in a high stakes situation like this. Even if the siren wasn’t trying to lure then, most people would be enchanted by the song regardless. 

Deceit pushed past him, the crew members looking up at the figure in black as he waved a series of hand gestures, indicating the sail position he wanted to steer them through the rocky banks they were approaching. 

Remus backed away quietly, behind a stack of equipment to temporarily be hidden from view. The siren was still singing, and it was louder than ever. It was awakening something in him, that feeling he’d had since before he could remember. The wanderlust that had been dormant until this moment was raging like a heavy storm, and it was all he could do to not throw himself overboard right there. 

Why was the song affecting him like this? Years ago, when the song had been calling to lure in food for the creature, there had been no reaction. It hadn’t been muffled by the hull of the ship, so he knew it couldn’t be that. 

But this call was different. The siren wasn’t singing to attract food, it was singing to attract a mate.

Remus shook his head harshly, hitting his temples with his palms. Where did that come from?! How could he possibly know that?! And why, if that was true, would he be reacting to it?!

The pull was only getting stronger, and Remus knew he couldn’t hold on anymore. He put his boot up on the railing, standing tall and letting the breeze rush past him. 

“Remus! What are you doing?!” From a distance, he heard Deceit’s stern voice calling after him, but it was too late. Remus let himself tip forward and fall from the side of the ship, hitting the water with a huge splash. 

Almost immediately he could feel a burning sensation start in his toes, spreading up his legs and into his torso until his whole body was on fire. 

He tried to suck in a breath and choked as water flowed into his lungs. He tried to cough harder, but it only made the problem worse. His vision was blurred and dimming around the edges from the pain.

Until suddenly, he could breathe again. Remus blinked, gasping in gulps and holding his hand against his burning chest. The teenager looked down and forgot how to take another breath. 

Where his legs had just been, there was now a dark forest green tail, long and curling around itself loosely in the water. Lifting his soaked shirt, he saw his skin had gained a hard finish, almost like armor. Reaching up to his neck, he felt gills against his fingertips, and when he ran his tongue across his teeth he could feel that they had sharpened into little knife blades. 

He was... a siren... but how?

It was then that Remus remembered a story his mother had told him as a child. One about his great-grandfather, who had fallen in love with a siren and eventually married her. How they had three children - one fully human, one a siren, and one that rested somewhere in between. 

And about how his mother - and by extension, him and his brother - were descendants of that in between child. Born both of land and sea, torn between two worlds. 

Well, with this, Remus had chosen his side. And he found that he didn’t regret it in the slightest. 

As he looked around, he realized that he could still clearly hear the song, though it sounded more nuanced than it had before. He could hear notes echoing through the water, resonating through his body in a way that they hadn’t been before. 

Remus grinned, baring his teeth as he took off towards the source of the song, his tail propelling him through the water faster than the ship. In only a few moments he was approaching the rocky shore of a small island, and the siren perched on one of the boulders on the beach. 

His skin was pale, a contrast to his dark purple and black tail. It was almost metallic, with how it glittered in the afternoon sun. 

Remus breached the water and the song washed over him. On instinct, he opened his mouth and let his own melody join the other siren. 

They sang together for several minutes, harmonizing in twisting, haunting melodies before the song faded away, and finally the other siren turned around and Remus saw he had the most piercing gray eyes he’d ever seen. 

“Beautiful...” Remus breathed, and the other siren blinked. 

“You’re... you’re not...”

Remus pulled himself forward slightly, grinning. “Not what? A siren? Cause I think I am! I’m not sure though, this is all pretty new to me. I mean, just ten minutes ago I thought I was still human!”

“Did you... come from that ship?” The siren asked, moving away from Remus cautiously when Remus nodded. 

“Yup! I heard your singing and I warned everyone! Siren song doesn’t normally affect me but this time it did, and when I jumped in the water I turned into this!”

The other blinked, then he covered his mouth and started shaking. Remus worried he was going to run away - swim away? - until he heard him draw in a breath and realized that the siren was _laughing_ at him!

“You’re insane! No way that’s true!”

“Why are you laughing?! I’m telling the honest truth!” Remus insisted, but that only seemed to make him laugh harder.

“Because I was singing to find a mate! That means you completely changed species and threw away your entire life because you got horny!”

Remus only took a moment to process that, flashing him a cheeky grin. “I’ve done crazier things when I’ve gotten horny!”

That just made the siren snort, and Remus joined him in laughter. 

“I’m Remus, by the way!”

The other siren continued to giggle, looking up at Remus with those gorgeous gray eyes. “Virgil.”

“So, Virgil, I’m new at this... since we sang together, does that mean we’re married now?”

Virgil threw a pebble at him, hitting him square in the forehead. 

“Definitely not!”

Remus pouted, snapping his fingers. “Darn. Well then, mind teaching me where I went wrong?”

Virgil rolled his eyes, moving to enter the water. “Let’s see if you can keep up first, before you start courting me.”

“You’re on!”


End file.
